Cameron Bell bent over at the waist, received help taking off his blood-stained sneakers and gasped for breath with a face stained with red Powerade.
He had just completed his first marathon, and was showing and feeling the full toll 26.2 miles can take on a body.
Imagine how all the others finishing behind at BB&T Coastal Field him must have felt.
Bell was the first of nearly 2,500 marathoners to cross the finish line Saturday morning in the 12th annual Myrtle Beach Marathon in a time of two hours, 34 minutes and 15 seconds.
To the victor go the spoils, right.
``I feel terrible,'' he said. ``I can't tell you how bad that felt. I'm utterly exhausted. I've never been that tired in a race. I've been out of breath and tired, but that was full, full exhaustion. ``... I'm still woozy. I might go puke, we'll see.''
Bell, 24, is a graduate student majoring in mechanical engineering at Clemson University who formerly ran track and cross country at Duke. He competed in the 800, mile and 5-kilometer races for the Blue Devils, and ran the half marathon here last year.
The longest he'd run prior to Saturday was 20 miles two weeks ago. ``I was just floating the last mile,'' Bell said. ``I didn't really know what was going on. I started seeing black splotches. I've never been this tired in a race. I guess they call it a runner's high.''
Read more in Sunday's edition of The Sun News.
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